Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Don't Create a new Al Qaeda? Why not? The 'old' Al Qaeda was so very useful

WASHINGTON — Egypt’s military leaders have launched an all-out war
against the Muslim Brotherhood. American and European leaders have
observed this crackdown with a sense of detachment, both because they
have few tools to influence the military’s decision-making and because
this conflict appears to be an internal matter.

But the belief that this intensifying conflict will play out solely
within Egypt’s borders is false.

I don't believe this division will play out internally. That was not the intent.

As the violence increases, and the
radicalization of Islamists deepens, Egypt’s crisis threatens to add
fuel to the ongoing terrorist activity across North Africa and to spawn a
new wave of attacks against Western targets just as the anti-Islamist
crackdown that began in the late 1970s aided the rise of Al Qaeda.

Add fuel to the ongoing terror activity in North Africa, a continent on the immediate radar of NATO. Justifying all manner of military intervention. Perfect for the military industrial complex

Repression of Islamists in Egypt was an essential stage in the emergence
of contemporary jihadism. As splinter groups that were significantly
more radical than the Muslim Brotherhood formed, Islamists became more
violent. In the 1970s, a charismatic former Brotherhood member, Shukri
Mustapha, created Takfir wal-Hijra, one of the early forerunners of Al
Qaeda. Meanwhile, Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj plotted the ideology of Al
Jihad. The latter group eventually assassinated President Anwar Sadat,
and later provided much of the leadership for Al Qaeda, including Ayman
al-Zawahri, the group’s current leader.

The situation in Egypt is bound to worsen and the military clearly knows
this, though some delude themselves that enough brutality will bring
submission.

Clearly the military knows this and that is exactly why they are undertaking the actions they are!

Criminalizing the Brotherhood, which renounced violence in
the 1970s and honored that pledge through the inept tenure of President
Mohamed Morsi, shows that a line has been crossed, and that the army’s
promises of a return to democracy were empty.

The turn against the Brothers is a fateful error. (Error? No. Planned? Yes) Repression coupled
with political exclusion has long been understood to drive
radicalization, and the great hope of the Arab Spring was that the
passing of the authoritarian regimes would put an end to arbitrary rule
and brutality. Instead, the war against the Brotherhood will make
violence the rational choice for fence-sitters.

Already, an Islamist offensive that began by targeting security forces
is expanding to include civilian targets. Some experts have pointed to
the Algerian ordeal of the 1990s, when the army nullified an election
that would have brought Islamists to power, sparking a war that killed
up to 200,000 people. But the regional consequences of protracted
conflict in Egypt could be worse.

Given the weakness of internal security forces across the region, it is
easy to imagine how a pipeline of money, men and matériel could threaten
all of North Africa. Weapons from the enormous arsenal of the former
Libyan strongman, Muammar el-Qaddafi, could flow into Egypt, stoking the
violence, while fighters can cross — as some already have — into Libya
to strengthen the jihadist forces there. Tunisia, the one hopeful
remnant of the Arab Spring, would clearly be endangered. In the other
direction, the Sinai Peninsula is poised to become even more chaotic and
perilous, jeopardizing Israel’s security.

Western governments must recognize the real possibility that a new cycle
of conflict could produce more terrorists who wish to target Americans
and the West. Rightly or wrongly, Islamists view the status quo as
supported — even engineered — by the United States. It doesn’t help when
American lawmakers like Michele Bachmann visit Egypt to praise the
military regime and condemn the Brotherhood, as she did recently.

America has no good options at present. There’s no upside to a
confrontation with the military — only the prospect of losing more sway.
An effective policy response will require close cooperation with the
Egyptian security services, who caused the problem to begin with. And
the need for American military access to the Suez Canal and continued
Egyptian support for the peace treaty with Israel also preclude simply
walking away from Egypt. The United States will be in a situation much
like it was with the Mubarak regime for three decades, working closely
on counterterrorism while pressing, however forlornly, for
liberalization.

That sentence just makes me chuckle, the poor hapless US. All the while wanting freedom and democracy for the Egyptian people (not!) but stuck with a military run government exactly like the one they worked with and supported for more then 30 years. What awful luck!

It must find new inducements to nudge Egypt’s rulers to
open up based on the country’s economic needs. But this is hard,
especially in light of what Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
will supply.

There is a small chance that, together with the West, other powers like
Russia and China, which both fear Islamist extremism, can be persuaded
to send Egypt a similar message. We should try to forge a common
approach.

America must do its best to ensure that those outside Egypt who remember
the cycle of repression and radicalization that paved the way to 9/11
regularly remind those inside Egypt who appear determined to forget it.

Think about this?

War is .....

...THE CONTINUATION OF STATE POLICY, BY OTHER MEANS

.......A POLITICAL ACTIVITY IN WHICH VIOLENCE IS USED TO BEND THE WILL OF YOUR ENEMY TO THAT OF YOUR OWN

Stop being Manipulated by the Elites

For if you [the rulers] suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves [outlaws] and then punish them.´ - Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Resource: Ukraine Military Marker

How your brain works

“‘Each thought and behavior is embedded within the circuitry of the neurons, and…neuronal activity accompanying or initiating an experience persists in the form of reverberating neuronal circuits, which become more strongly defined with repetition”

Richard Restak

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'The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed'- Steve Biko

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Edward Bernays: Perception Management it is a Reality

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society,"

"Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. . . . In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."

About Me

This blog is a place to not only post information that will never see the light of day on the mainstream media, but, also to present alternative perspectives to main stream media information, that most often presents no background, no context, and never questions the information presented.
The name I chose, Penny for your thoughts, is an invitation to readers to share their relevant thoughts on the varying information.